A Gaze of Bright Green
by Diana the Moon Queen
Summary: In the future, Kazuma Yagami and his love life take a terrible turn. He manages to find happiness once more, but his bane (AYANO) returns at an entirely wrong time. Who does he choose? Kaze no Stigma love triangle.
1. Chapter 1

**OK guys, I realize I'm doing a lot of stuff with OOCs, but I will try my best to come up with ideas for my other stories. In the mean time, please enjoy this one. This idea came to me through a dream… in first person. Yep, I'm a Kazuma fangirl =)**

"The name is Francesca Dela Cruz."

Kazuma's future had spiraled out of control. Everything was a mess. His lover had forgotten him, and happiness seemed to be slowly drained from him. He had gone back to his old ways, but he didn't let his anger get the best of him. He was at a quick dating service. Hopefully, one of these random women would bring back the life he so wanted.

This one seemed pretty enough for his liking. She had long black hair that was the same length as _her's_. Her eyes were a vibrant green and she was shorter than Kazuma. She had a flirtatious little voice with a smile to match that too. She had these little knuckle gloves that had spikes on them. He wasn't sure if they were meant for fighting or for decoration. Regardless, they matched the rest of her perfectly. She had a black leather jacket that covered up a black shirt with a white cross on it. Pined to the right shoulder of her jacket was a rhinestone skull. She wore black jeans along with black sneakers that had spikes on them as well.

"Kazuma Yagami. You do street fights or something?"

"They're just fights. It's not like I get paid or anything, it's just for fun."

"Fighting for fun huh?"

"Yeah; I get angry really easily, and it just helps me calm down."

"I can understand that."

"Dela Cruz isn't a Japanese last name. You're not from around here, are you?"

"I was born in the Philippines."

"Well that makes sense."

"How old are you?"

"I'm twenty six."

"Oh, I'm twenty four."

"Do you often win those fights of yours?"

"Yeah."

This one actually seemed to fit the bill for Kazuma. She could hold her own, and she was pretty sexy. He should experiment with her for a while longer.

"What's your number?"

"What's yours?"

"How about we just input the numbers into each other's phones?"

"Fine."

The two of them swapped numbers, and just after they gave their phones back to each other, they had to switch partners. Francesca gave him a little wink before grabbing her clutch purse and leaving. That night, Kazuma met many other girls, but none of them fascinated him quite as much as she did. One girl was extremely sexy, particularly in her bosom, but she was too stupid for his liking. Kazuma was confident that her bust size was bigger than her brain size. One girl was smart and pretty, but she was somewhat of a jerk. When the day ended, Kazuma didn't have any other new numbers. He decided he would give her a call the next morning.

He strolled to his apartment, which wasn't too far from the place he just was. He was riding in the elevator. Then, he saw a girl. She looked way too familiar to him. She was faced the other way though. Kazuma grabbed her by the shoulder and turned her around. Much to his surprise, it was Francesca. When he turned her around, he held her quite close to his face. He looked away from her surprised green eyes and looked at the buttons. They were the only two people in the elevator, and he saw that the floor right next to his was lit bright orange.

"You live here?" he asked. She gave a surprised nod. "Can you let go of me?" she asked. Kazuma realized how close they were and he let go. "Sorry," he apologized. "No, it's alright. You live here too?" she repeated his question. "Yeah; top floor," he told her. "We live so close!" she exclaimed. "Well aren't we in luck?" Kazuma said. It almost sounded like sarcasm, but it was his attempt at flirting. "Oh yes, we are. I'm so glad. I haven't met any other interesting people today," she said as she ran a finger down his chest. "Neither have I," Kazuma said. He gently grabbed her wrist as she was getting a bit too low. They stood like that for a couple seconds, but then the elevator door opened. He let go of her wrist. "Have a good day," he said as she walked out. "Thanks. You too," she said. As the elevator door opened, she blew him a kiss.

It wasn't long before the elevator reached his floor. He smiled when he thought of Francesca. He liked her so far. He liked her a lot. She could probably stand her ground in a tough situation. She seemed very independent, and she didn't need or like assistance. She was hot and cute, but Kazuma wasn't sure about her being beautiful. He tossed his keys aside and plopped down into bed. He stared at the ceiling, and began to make out shapes that he saw. That wasn't really what he was thinking about though. He had somehow developed some sort of crush on that girl, and judging from that kiss she blew him, she probably felt the same way. Call it what you will; love at first sight, maybe? "This one might actually last more than a couple of months," Kazuma whispered to himself. Then, his eyes became sullen. "Ayano, I'm sorry, but this was your idea."


	2. Chapter 2

**As usual, please enjoy and leave a review!**

Kazuma woke up to his ringtone. He looked at the screen of his phone. It read:

Thought you might want to chat

The message was from Francesca. He looked at the time. It was six thirty in the morning, which was a bit early for his standards, but why not? He typed a quick message to her, and got ready. He didn't like talking to people he couldn't see. It always made him feel uneasy, but he would if he had to. This girl, however, seemed interesting and she lived directly below him. His floor was her ceiling. It wasn't like he was too lazy to take a trip down a few stairs. When he had fully dressed in his usual attire, he checked his phone again for any other messages.

Ok =)

He politely knocked on her door. He waited for it to open and realized that this Francesca was nobody to be underestimated in terms of fashion. She was wearing a plain white shirt and a plaid black skirt. She had a necklace with another skull on it as well. Kazuma made a mental note that she was definitely goth; not that it mattered to him.

"In such little time," he said. "Same to you," Francesca winked. Kazuma looked around the apartment. All of the furniture was black just as he suspected, and there were faux skulls and other freaky decorations everywhere. "Damn," he said to himself. "What? Do you not like it? Is it creepy?" the girl freaked. Kazuma shook his head. "Please sit down," she said. Everything was so camouflaged that he didn't realize that there was a couch right there. He sat down and looked at her. She was so different. Maybe that's why Kazuma liked her so much. Maybe it was because all of the other girls reminded him of…

"Ayano," he whispered. "I'm sorry? Did you say something?" Francesca asked. It took Kazuma a while to figure out that she had asked him a question, but he eventually noticed before he seemed lost. "No. It's nothing," he reassured her. She smiled and moved closer to him, crossing her legs. "I'm surprised that we skipped all the restaurants and dining and came straight to my place. It is very touching you know," she said. "Well, you lived so close. I didn't see any reason why I shouldn't. So, what was it you wanted to talk about? Kazuma asked. "Oh, you know, us," she smiled. Kazuma mentally cringed at her saying 'us.' Maybe he wasn't ready. Still, he didn't want to break her heart too soon.

"Alright; what about us?" he asked. "Well, you know, let's talk about personality first," she said, "Like, favorite colors and hobbies and such." Kazuma thought for a moment. He didn't want her to know anything about what happened to him and Ayano. "All I can say is that I'm awesome," he said. "Aww… can't you tell me more?" Francesca complained. "I just want to keep you guessing," he told her in a matter-of-factly manner. "Alright then Mister Enigma! Well, I come from the Philippines, as you already know. I began taking part in martial arts when I was around ten. My favorite color is black, and my parents died in a car accident when I was only about an infant," she stated. "Sorry about that," Kazuma sympathized. "It's okay," she said. "Well what happened after that?" he asked. "I was taken care of by my aunt and uncle. I was the only child for them, and I considered them to be my parents. My aunt was nice, but my uncle would beat me up. That's when I learned martial arts. I let them believe I was helpless, until one day, I fought back. After that, I left. I didn't know what I was supposed to do after that, so…" she trailed off. Kazuma gave her a little nudge. "Don't stop there. It was getting interesting," he said.

She swallowed hard and continued her story, "I settled for the only job I could find. People paid me to let them molest me." Kazuma looked at her with sympathy. That must have been humiliating for her, and that feeling was just something that he knew too well. "So you left because you wanted to, huh?" he asked, "I left because they disowned me." Francesca stood up, "Are you serious?" Kazuma nodded. He opened up the can of coffee he was holding the entire time. Suddenly, his phone vibrated. It was on the table where Francesca could see the wallpaper clearly.

It was a picture of Ayano happily licking away at her ice cream. Kazuma took it right in the middle of their relationship. He loved how eating ice cream made her look like a seven year old instead of a seventeen year old. He instantly took the phone from the table, hiding it in the pockets of his jacket. "Don't look at that!" he commanded. His tone of voice became stern and mournful. "Who was that?" Francesca asked. "You don't need to know," he said. Francesca shrugged it off, deeming it unimportant.

They continued their small talk until eleven. It evolved into opinions about serious topics, like the economy and home environments. After Kazuma had said something about nuclear warfare and HANE, Francesca hugged his arm. "Does that make us boyfriend and girlfriend now? This little chat?" she asked. She hugged him even tighter. "Because I can tell that the first time you saw me, it just felt right. That's how I felt too. There's no need to keep secrets from me," she said gently. Kazuma looked at her arm. She was definitely perceptive… and clingy. He had to answer soon. She was cutting of his blood circulation. "You're a smart girl, you know that? I guess so. You can consider me whatever you like," he said, "and Cesca… I can call you that, right?" Francesca looked up at him with her eyes. "Please do," she said. "How long do you plan on hugging me?" he asked. "To tight? I'm sorry," she said as she lessened the pressure, "To answer your question: For a very long time."


	3. Chapter 3

**As usual, please enjoy and leave a review. To the haters of this pairing: Will you calm down? Sheesh. You don't even know the story yet. I'm on the second chapter, k? If you don't like it, don't read it because I really don't appreciate nasty reviews that are complaints. Reviews are constructive and they aren't supposed to be rants. To my Guest named Gwen: That is a very good question. To answer it, we write things like this because writers have feelings. We write to please others and/or to please ourselves. In this case, I'm doing the latter. I'm writing this because I want to. This story is Kazuma and Ayano because of what happens in this chapter and beyond. As an extra side note, I dedicate this fanfic to a friend of mine named Nicole. She was the one who gave me the inspiration of this fic, so don't flame my friend. She has been very supportive, and I trust her when she says that this will be a good story. Thanks for reading this big ass author's note. **

For a couple months or so, they continued dating. Kazuma took Cesca to any place she wanted to go. However, he did decide his own arrangements. One of them was at an ice cream parlor. He thought she might like it, but she instantly backed away, stating that she despised ice cream with all of her heart. Some part of him was killed, and another was happy. He loved this! She was so different! He never needed to be reminded of Ayano ever again! But then again, he was hoping he would still have some part of her left. He couldn't decide as to whether he wanted to be reminded of Ayano or not.

Still, Cesca didn't just charm him by being a distraction. He just found her so interesting and sweet. For reasons neither of them could explain, they were inseparable. She was fun loving and adventurous; she was the one to introduce him to new things that he came to enjoy. He was composed and rational; he was the one to rein her in when she got a bit too reckless. Despite her being as Goth as she was, she was rather optimistic. Probably the most trivial asset of hers was her strength and physical capability. She had great knowledge of martial arts and would use it to her advantage, but only when the time was right.

One time, the two of them were chit-chatting away, when a man about the same age as Kazuma came up to Cesca. "Hey," he said. The two of them simply ignored him. He turned her stool so that they had eye contact. "I see. You're busy giving this wimp advice on the life he never had. I get it. But girl, why do you do that when you could hang around men and, you know…get laid?" he said. Cesca's eyes grew wide, and she was clearly disgusted. "Stay away from me!" she shouted. The man laughed. "Don't be like that. Come on! I'm going to show you something I know you'll like!" he tried to persuade. "Are you deaf or something? She said piss off!" Kazuma explained to the idiot. "This is something you wouldn't understand. You see, what I'm doing is getting a girlfriend. I don't think you get it pal, so stay out of the way," The man intimidated. "I think you have my girl mistaken for your bitch outside. Literally," Kazuma insulted. Cesca blushed a little at Kazuma calling her his girl in public.

"For the love of God! Shut up!" The man said. He punched Kazuma in the face. Kazuma returned the favor. The two of them had a full on fight. Even though Kazuma was winning, Cesca decided to intervene anyway. As the guy tried to land another punch, she grabbed his arm. She pulled him over to her and put in a wrist lock. He looked as if he was in excruciating pain, and he begged her to let go over and over again. Cesca made it worse with every plea. "Listen here you disgusting freak! I _will not _tolerate anyone who tries to mess with my man, alright?" she asked. The man nodded, his face turning purple. Cesca gave a sick little smile and let go. Kazuma watched as his arm coiled back like a rubber band. It was in an extremely awkward situation. The dude looked at it as he slowly stood up. "Now that I've made myself perfectly clear…" she trailed off. There was complete stillness for a few seconds, but then she kicked the perv's testicles…with her spiked shoes. She smiled as he screamed and flopped helplessly on the ground. "Have a nice day!" she cheerfully said as if he was an old friend.

Kazuma and Cesca sat next to each other on the shores of a beach. They went there so that they could be alone with just each other. It was evening, and the beach seemed almost vacant. It was perfect. They let the water lap on their bare feet, as they had taken off their shoes. "And then you said, 'Have a nice day!' Did you see the look on the bartender's face? That was completely priceless!" Kazuma laughed. "You're still raving about it? Silly Kazuma!" Cesca cooed as she flicked some water onto his face. "I've never seen you this happy before," she told him. Kazuma collected himself in a matter of seconds and was back to normal. "Is there something wrong with that?" he asked. "No. It's just that I feel really happy because you like what I did. I'm proud of myself now. I never really had anyone's approval, so I just enjoy- Kazuma? What are you doing?" she began to blush madly. Kazuma put his arm around her and began to smell her hair. Suddenly, out of nowhere, he kissed the top of her head.

The two of them remained in silence for the rest of their stay there. Kazuma had her in his arms, and she felt so comfortable. Then, Kazuma saw something extremely disturbing. There was a girl who looked awfully familiar to him. He took a closer look at her. As if she knew he was watching, she looked back at him. Kazuma was troubled when he saw her. It couldn't be; not now at least.

_Ayano?!_


	4. Chapter 4

**As always, please enjoy and leave a review. **

"Hey," Cesca said, "Is there something wrong?" Kazuma shook his head a couple times and kissed the top of her head again. Even so, he never once took his gaze off of Ayano. He saw that she was alone, and she was holding a basket of some sort. It was probably for collecting sea shells, as there was one in her hands. It was an orange clam shell that was fairly large. She put it in the basket, which confirmed Kazuma's idea.

He was agreeing to everything that Cesca said, and kept watching Ayano. After some time, she noticed his eyes on her and looked up from the ground. She gave him a simple smile, and then went back to her collecting. Kazuma was offended by the smile. Even though it was something as friendly as that, he was still hurt. It was like she was mocking him. How could she still be smiling at him after what she did? She was practically laughing at him for being so… alone.

"Kazuma, I know that this sounds a bit rude, but could you please pay attention when I speak?" Cesca asked him with shinning eyes. "Of course; sorry about that," he said. "It's about that woman, isn't it?" she softly mentioned, "You can go talk to her if you want." Kazuma longingly looked at Ayano, and then Cesca. She was letting him, so why not? "Are you sure you don't mind?" he just wanted to confirm with her. He didn't want her to feel… you know… jealous. "I'm sure. It doesn't bother me," Cesca said as she released his arm. Kazuma thought for a moment, and then an idea popped into his head. Not his best idea, but it was another one of the crazy things that only Kazuma would do. "Come with me."

**~oo00oo~**

Ayano saw Kazuma come closer to her. She wasn't worried about it. She was just in the mood to burn him alive. Some part of her had changed thanks to him. She had a better control of her temper, which meant a better control of her power. There were now twelve people in the history of the Kannagi family who could summon the God's fire.

When Kazuma was about three meters away from her, she looked around to make sure that it was only the three of them there. She didn't care about the girl Kazuma was with. Sure, she was going to be a witness, but you could get rid of those easily. He was now three feet away. It was about time. She had wanted to do this for a while now.

**~oo00oo~**

"Ayano…" Kazuma whispered as he ran to her. He wanted to talk to her for some time now, but he didn't have the chance. Cesca was right behind him, and it seemed that Ayano was not aware of her presence. Maybe that was a good thing. All of a sudden, he was trapped in a vortex of blue flames. He was confused. Ayano was the only fire magic user there! Why would she do something like this with a witness? Unless…she planned to…

Kazuma braced himself for certain death, but then a dome of earth protected him. Now, he knew that he and the two girls were the only ones there, and Cesca was not a magic user. He was terribly confused.

Ayano was puzzled as well. She sensed no aura coming from the girl Kazuma was with. If she was a magic user, then she was tremendously skilled at hiding her aura. Ayano felt the ground beneath her shake, and on instinct, jumped. Then a couple towering spikes of earth shot up from the ground. The little distraction had caused her to lose her focus, and as a result, the God's fire disappeared. Frustrated, she glared at the girl, and then noticed something alarming.

Her eyes were golden and cat like, which was not natural. Was she a contractor? Regardless, she was a magic user. More spikes erupted from the ground, and Ayano kept dodging them. It was obvious that the girl was doing this, but even when she was attacking, it was still impossible to sense her aura.

"Listen up you bitch, you don't mess with me. Plus, you used your powers in public. You should know better than that, Kannagi. Just to answer your question, my eyes turn this color whenever I use my magic. It's a part of my family's technique. It's also part of our technique to keep our auras hidden, unless we absolutely have to reveal them," the girl said.

Then, Kazuma remembered a little lesson he had learned when he was younger. It was about a famous family of earth magic users called the Dela Cruz family.

"_That family is second only to the Tsuabuki clan. Actually, the answer to the question of who is stronger is uncertain. However, the Dela Cruz family is actually humble, so they let the Tsuabuki family take the title of worlds strongest. You wouldn't want to get in a fight with one of them. It's very difficult to read their auras, so you can't predict their movements that well. They're a bag full of surprises, but once you can feel their aura, run. We're not exactly sure what happens, because nobody who knew lived. _

This was bad. This was very, very, bad. They needed to get out of there fast. You never know what could turn up on the internet. Still, somebody here might die. As quickly as he could, he tossed himself and Cesca into the air.

"Cesca, what the hell was that? Why didn't you tell me?" he asked. "Because I thought you knew when you heard my name," she said. "You tell me everything about you when we get home. I mean it!"


End file.
